[Blindtlk] trailing with your hand or with your cane

[Ron Poire]

I think Nicki, you have the right idea.
Use your cane to differentiate between the street and the driveway. Forget 
the color contrast and rely on your cane. I 'm a pretty good traveler, I 
also decided to go for paratransit, because I get cold easily and it takes a 
long time to warm up.

Ron


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nikki Wunderlich" <nikki0222 at gmail.com>
To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2011 9:28 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] trailing with your hand or with your cane


>I agree. on the way to my chiropractor I have to walk for about a half 
>block
> with no side walk, for that part there is 3 driveways, 2 in to the parking
> lot for the apartment complex I live in, and one for an old no longer used
> schoo.  I have to use either constant contact or the 2 point touch method,
> or I end up veering in to the street. It's not a very busy street, but I
> still don't want to veer in to the street traffic or not, because you 
> never
> know when a car is going to come and weather they're paying attention to
> their surroundings or not. At yet another point on my walk, the side walk
> and a driveway to a business are the same color, and the drive way is very
> short. So the only way for some one to differenciate between the driveway
> and the sidewalk is to rely on their cane. so I agree if you don't have to
> make yourself stand out more then you already do because of the cane or 
> dog
> then don't, but if it is unavoidable then so be it safty is more important
> than looks
>
> Nikki
>
> On Thu, May 12, 2011 at 1:52 PM, Jim <jp100 at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>> Bob, you are absolutely right in that sighted people notice the slightest
>> things we do, especially when we're walking and using our canes.  They
>> don't
>> understand that sometimes, we have to go out of our way to feel for a
>> sidewalk  or shoreline an edge or do as you did and put one foot on the
>> street while another was on the driveway.
>> The question sometimes arises, "How do I not stand out and how do I show
>> confidence when walking with a cane?"
>> Good question.
>> I think that the fact that we simply have a cane will make us stand out
>> already.
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of Robert J Smith
>> Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2011 8:27 AM
>> To: BLINDTLK at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: [Blindtlk] trailing with your hand or with your cane
>>
>> Hi all.  My belief is that if you move your hand along a wall at your 
>> side
>> versus sliding your cane tip along a wall, it makes no difference.  They
>> both will be noticed whether we like it or not.  I believe that people 
>> will
>> notice anything we do that they don't do and that one thing is no more
>> likely to get noticed than another.  You might keep in mind that if you
>> walk
>> fast and trail, you run somewhat of a risk of banging your arm into
>> something that would be sticking out.
>>
>> One example of being noticed no matter what, happened to me very 
>> recently.
>>  I was walking to my bus stop.  On the way to the stop there are numerous
>> driveways with a very slight drop-off to the street at the bottom of 
>> their
>> slopes.  I check the drop-offs with one foot and my cane to make certain
>> where the intersecting street is so I can turn left off the street I'm
>> walking along and go west one street where the bus stop is.  On this
>> particular day, I had found the intersecting street, crossed the street I
>> was walking along and headed west to the bus stop.  About two or three
>> minutes later, a man and woman came along.  She asked me if I was alright
>> because she said that she had seen me almost trip.  I was so surprised 
>> that
>> I didn't know what she meant at first.  I told her that I was fine, just
>> waiting for a bus.  As I thought about it after she left, I realized that
>> she had probably seen me dip down as I went across the slopes of a couple
>> driveways, as well as putting my foot out to test for the slight drop-off
>> and then bring it back again.  I was nowhere near tripping though, hadn't
>> even been anywhere close to pitching forward, just checking things out.
>>  I'd
>> rather risk looking a little conspicuous though than die, as the street I
>> turn down to go to the bus stop is very busy with no light.  So, in
>> summary,
>> try to be as inconspicuous as possible and when you honestly can't that's
>> the way things go and so be it.
>>
>> Bob Smith
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>
>
>
> -- 
> I thank you for the emails
> nikki
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